OTHERS TO REINTERPRET SURFING MADONNA ART

ENCINITAS 
The Surfing Madonna mosaic could soon spread her message to “Save the Ocean” to other California beach towns.

Artist Mark Patterson — who captured the public’s imagination and spawned a civic debate when he anonymously installed his mosaic mural of a surfboard-riding Our Lady of Guadalupe under an Encinitas overpass in 2011 — said other artists will soon create their own interpretations of the Madonna.

The nonprofit Surfing Madonna Oceans Project will find homes for the artwork along the state’s coastline as part of a campaign to raise awareness about environmental problems facing the world’s oceans.

Patterson said Susanna Holt, an artist who specializes in bronze sculptures, will be the first artist chosen to reinterpret the Surfing Madonna.

Holt’s work is likely to be placed on private property somewhere around Mavericks beach near Half Moon Bay or Ghost Tree beach near Pebble Beach — two popular big surf spots. The exact site hasn’t been worked out, Patterson said.

Patterson’s 10-foot-by-10-foot stained-glass Madonna mural included the words “Save the Ocean” when it was installed on public property beneath a train bridge east of Highway 101 in Encinitas.

The mosaic was later removed out of concerns that it may violate state law prohibiting the government from favoring one religion over another. It now hangs on private property between a cafe and a surf shop on North Coast Highway in Leucadia.

Patterson and others have since created the nonprofit Surfing Madonna Oceans Project, which will help raise money to fund the art installation campaign.

The group is planning the Surfing Madonna Save The Ocean 5-10K Beach Run on Nov. 16 in Encinitas. Information is available at
surfingmadonna.org.